Conning Inc. Sells 11,783 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Conning Inc. trimmed its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 1.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 799,401 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 11,783 shares during the period. Conning Inc.’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $36,669,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. USS Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 4.6% during the first quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 713,156 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $35,790,000 after purchasing an additional 31,354 shares during the last quarter. Cornerstone Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 8.6% during the second quarter. Cornerstone Capital Inc. now owns 317,284 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $13,434,000 after purchasing an additional 25,156 shares during the period. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 127.0% in the 2nd quarter. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. now owns 184,170 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $7,798,000 after buying an additional 103,046 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 30.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 5,718,859 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $287,081,000 after buying an additional 1,339,580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantitative Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Verizon Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,577,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Key Verizon Communications News

Here are the key news stories impacting Verizon Communications this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Broker upgrade: Freedom Broker upgraded Verizon from “hold” to “buy” and raised its price target from $53 to $55, implying substantial potential upside from recent trading levels. Freedom Broker Verizon rating
• Positive Sentiment: Operational momentum: Verizon’s third-quarter adjusted EPS exceeded expectations, while postpaid phone additions, broadband growth, lower promotional costs and margin expansion supported a higher full-year outlook. The company also highlighted approximately $4 billion in signed AI-infrastructure contracts with AWS and Alphabet. Verizon Q3 earnings call highlights
• Positive Sentiment: Potentially manageable satellite threat: CEO Dan Schulman said SpaceX could require four to six years and hundreds of billions of dollars to become a full U.S. wireless competitor. Verizon remains open to partnerships with satellite providers while rejecting arrangements that would allow Starlink to compete directly through Verizon’s network. SpaceX and Verizon competition

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $43.16 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $179.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.26. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $46.69. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.68 and a 12-month high of $51.68. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.36.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 26th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.27 by $0.04. Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 11.64%. The business had revenue of $34.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $34.77 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.21 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 5.04 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $0.7075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.83 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.6%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on VZ. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $51.50 to $50.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Arete Research lowered their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Thirteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seventeen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verizon Communications news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.00, for a total value of $47,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 98,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,251,238. This trade represents a 1.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 11,000 shares of company stock valued at $516,373 over the last three months. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

Verizon Communications Inc is a telecommunications company that provides wireless communications, broadband, and digital connectivity services. Through its consumer business, Verizon offers mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and other connected devices, home internet, fixed wireless access, and fiber-optic broadband services under the Fios brand.

Verizon also serves businesses, government agencies, and other organizations with wireless connectivity, private networks, internet and data services, managed communications, cloud and security solutions, and Internet of Things services.